Can Green Be Lean?

Introduction: In the past, efforts to improve the environment almost always led to increased production costs. In fact, some economists have attributed a significant part of the slowdown in productivity growth of the 1970s to increased attention to environmental issues (Gray, 1987; Conrad and Morrison, 1989). This result is in accordance with neoclassical economic theory, which holds that firms maximize profits subject to given constraints. If a constraint (such as keeping emissions below a certain level) is added, then profits cannot be higher than they were before. However, in practice there are numerous examples of firms which have both reduced their emissions and increased their profits and/or their efficiency. (See for example Porter and van der Linde, 1995.) Concomitantly, a central tenet of strategic management theory is that firms need to focus on only a few distinctive competencies if they wish to be profitable (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990). However, Florida (forthcoming) has found a significant number of firms that are leaders in adopting new forms of both production management and environmental management. This paper explores these paradoxes: how firms can be both profitable and environmentally conscious, how they can be both innovators in manufacturing and leaders in emissions reduction. The contribution of this paper is to present detailed examples of conditions under which these types of superior performance go together, and to begin to develop a theoretical framework which explains the examples. The theoretical framework is based on Nathan Rosenberg's (1976) concept of 'focussing devices'. His argument is that because managers are only boundedly rational, they cannot explore all possible sources of efficiency improvement at once. Instead, they develop worldviews which give them ideas about where might be fruitful places to look. In Rosenberg?s example, nineteenth-century US firms developed many labor-saving innovations because of the salience of high labor costs in this country. Many of these practices increased efficiency and profitability in Europe as well, and were adopted there; however, they were not thought of there because labor costs did not stand out so clearly as a key element of costs. This paper argues that the recent diffusion of the principles behind the Toyota Production System gives managers a new focusing device, one which allows them to be simultaneously 'lean' and 'green'

Pollution Prevention Assistance in the Automotive Supply Chain: A Study of Northeast Ohio

No Abstract Provided, see paper for executive summar

Ocean literacies: the promise of regional approaches integrating ocean histories and psychologies

The current concept of ocean literacy reflects a prerequisite for achieving ocean sustainability. Existing ocean literacy reflects a fundamentally western view of oceans that works in tension with ocean literacy goals. Although ocean literacy practitioners and researchers are, laudably, starting to incorporate Indigenous knowledges and perspectives from BIPOC communities, attention to historical change continues to be left out of ocean literacy, to the detriment of ocean literacy goals. This article points out that, given the reality that human-ocean relationships have changed over time, and differed among cultural groups in the past as well as in the present, ocean literacy needs to incorporate ocean history at a foundational level. Because there are historical differences in human relationships with oceans, it stands to reason that regional ocean literacies must be more effective than a universal and timeless ocean literacy framework. Following the logical efficacy of a regional approach to ocean literacy, this article further argues that regional ocean literacies should involve the systematic inclusion of emotional elements. Regional ocean literacies should be constructed through knowledge co-production, involving diverse types of expertise, knowledge and actors to produce context-specific knowledge and pathways towards a sustainable future. To fully exploit the potential of ocean literacy, there is a need for the UN Ocean Decade to work towards regional and place-based approaches that incorporate history as well as culture in an iterative and collaborative process involving diverse types of expertise, knowledge and actors

Through Oceans Darkly: Sea Literature and the Nautical Gothic

No abstract available

Fathoming the ocean: Discovery and exploration of the deep sea, 1840-1880

British and American scientists and hydrographers began to study the ocean\u27s depths in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Their investigation was inspired and promoted by the broad cultural acquaintance with the ocean that began earlier, but accelerated dramatically after 1840. The appearance of maritime novels, the popularity of marine natural history, and the sensation over the Atlantic telegraph made the blue water beyond shore an item of popular interest for the first time ever. The social appeal of seaside holidays, ocean travel, and yachting drew naturalists to the sea, while marine zoology held intellectual promise for many branches of science. Investigation of the great depths extended nationalistic exploration into the sea, making ocean science an important avenue for cultural imperialism. The political and economic importance of sperm whaling, fishing, shipping, and especially submarine telegraphy mobilized support for scientific research into the depths. Oceanography developed in the crucible of ocean-going ships, on whose decks landlubber naturalists faced the challenge of integrating their scientific work into ships\u27 physical and social structures. Together, scientists and seamen forged a new, scientific, maritime culture that shaped the emerging discipline. Close contact between scientists, hydrographers, and engineers at sea facilitated the development of technologies to fathom great depths, while exposure to the last days of sail encouraged scientists to represent their nautical experiences to a wide public through the genre of explorers\u27 travel narratives. This project explores the construction of the ocean\u27s depths as a culturally and scientifically significant geographic location. It contributes to the history of science by identifying the diverse forces that shaped the emerging discipline of oceanography, defined from the start by its ocean-going context. By the 1880s and 1890s, oceanography had become an acknowledged discipline, one whose dynamic relationship to political and cultural interests continues to the present

Ocean literacy and public humanities

This paper frames a series of contributions that both argue for the need to integrate the humanities into ocean literacy and stewardship and provide examples of public humanities projects that contribute to this goal. This introductory piece examines the history of the development and subsequent international adoption of ocean literacy principles, then analyzes the content of the ocean literacy framework to reveal that the humanities and arts are largely absent. Ocean history, or couched more broadly, the “blue humanities,” can enrich the goals and achievements of ocean literacy. The existence of the ocean literacy framework, and particularly its grassroots origin and culture, invites humanists to contribute to the much-needed project of historicizing our human relationship with the ocean. If we hope to address present environmental challenges, the humanities must complement the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and policy foci of existing articulations of ocean literacy. The public humanities and arts stand to contribute importantly to addressing this lacuna, in part because ocean literacy is aimed at public audiences rather than specialists or academic groups. The urgency of ocean-related environmental challenges heightens the need for humanists to become involved, because ocean literacy must be taught not only through traditional educational institutions but to all members of the global community

Fathoming the ocean: Discovery and exploration of the deep sea, 1840-1880

British and American scientists and hydrographers began to study the ocean\u27s depths in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Their investigation was inspired and promoted by the broad cultural acquaintance with the ocean that began earlier, but accelerated dramatically after 1840. The appearance of maritime novels, the popularity of marine natural history, and the sensation over the Atlantic telegraph made the blue water beyond shore an item of popular interest for the first time ever. The social appeal of seaside holidays, ocean travel, and yachting drew naturalists to the sea, while marine zoology held intellectual promise for many branches of science. Investigation of the great depths extended nationalistic exploration into the sea, making ocean science an important avenue for cultural imperialism. The political and economic importance of sperm whaling, fishing, shipping, and especially submarine telegraphy mobilized support for scientific research into the depths. Oceanography developed in the crucible of ocean-going ships, on whose decks landlubber naturalists faced the challenge of integrating their scientific work into ships\u27 physical and social structures. Together, scientists and seamen forged a new, scientific, maritime culture that shaped the emerging discipline. Close contact between scientists, hydrographers, and engineers at sea facilitated the development of technologies to fathom great depths, while exposure to the last days of sail encouraged scientists to represent their nautical experiences to a wide public through the genre of explorers\u27 travel narratives. This project explores the construction of the ocean\u27s depths as a culturally and scientifically significant geographic location. It contributes to the history of science by identifying the diverse forces that shaped the emerging discipline of oceanography, defined from the start by its ocean-going context. By the 1880s and 1890s, oceanography had become an acknowledged discipline, one whose dynamic relationship to political and cultural interests continues to the present